A mammoth double-deck jet scheduled to begin flying in and out of Houston next summer will require more than $30 million in upgrades at Bush Intercontinental Airport and should boost passenger traffic.
German carrier Lufthansa announced Wednesday that it will begin flying the Airbus A380 - the world's largest commercial airplane, with 526 passenger seats - on daily flights to and from Frankfurt beginning Aug. 1. The plane will replace the 747-400 currently used on those flights, increasing capacity by 63 percent per trip.
"It's like you're flying two aircraft with one, in a way," Lufthansa spokeswoman Christina Semmel said.
The airline said the new plane will benefit energy-related business travel by increasing capacity to Frankfurt, where Lufthansa has connections to more than 35 other energy centers.
At Bush, which will be the first Texas airport to host the A380, enthusiastic officials said renovations are already under way to prepare for the jet that is 79 feet tall with a wingspan stretching more than 261 feet, or most of the length of a football field.
Director Mario Diaz said the Houston Airport System will spend $8 million to widen runway and taxiway shoulders so the new plane's outer engines will blow exhaust over asphalt instead of grass; $7.5 million to add loading bridges at the gate to accommodate an upper deck and an extended lower deck; and $15 million to $20 million to improve the interior appearance throughout Terminal D in anticipation of more first-class and international passengers.
Waiver from FAA
Diaz said Bush has received a temporary waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to handle the largest class of jets, including the A380, and it will spend another $30 million to $40 million to upgrade the remaining runways to secure full FAA clearance.
He said larger passenger loads are expected to add $20 million to $30 million to the local economy each year in the form of new jobs catering to the travelers and increased revenue from parking and on-site concessions.
Lufthansa, which began using the A380 in June 2010 for flights to Tokyo, now has eight of the aircraft in operation, including flights to Miami. Beginning in the spring, the airline will restart A380 service to San Francisco and New York's Kennedy Airport. Houston will be the fourth U.S. city served by the plane through Lufthansa.
Elsewhere, Semmel said, the A380 has attracted more passengers per flight while costing about the same to operate because of improved fuel efficiency.
'Ooh-ah' factor
Allan Tamm, an airline consultant and president of Oregon-based Avicor Aviation, agreed that the plane should boost traffic at Bush, at least initially. Some business travelers could change their itineraries to take advantage of the A380's more spacious cabin, even if that would require an overnight stay in Houston. Plus, even tourists could be lured by the chance to ride a brand-new plane branded the biggest in the world.
"Part of it is an 'ooh-ah' factor," Tamm said. "Plus, it's a very comfortable aircraft."
Lufthansa has configured the A380s with eight first-class and 98 business-class seats on the upper deck and 420 economy-class seats.
But airports hoping to land an A380 have had to make a number of expensive improvements, from hardening runways to increasing staff to handle the influx of suddenly larger groups of passengers.
Anthony Sabino, a law professor at St. John's University School of Law in New York who follows the airline industry, compared the situation to the time decades ago when jumbo jets such as the 747 arrived on the scene.
Tamm said the A380 has had a good safety and reliability record over the course of its short history.
He said that wherever super-wide-bodies are in use, airports must increase the spacing between them and smaller planes both in physical space on the taxiways and in the time between takeoffs, since the larger planes tend to create more turbulence in their wake that could affect smaller planes taking off behind them.
In April, an A380 operated by Air France clipped a commuter jet on a rainy runway at Kennedy Airport. No one was injured.
Diaz said Bush is configured differently than Kennedy and officials here are working out final details of protocols related to the A380.
"You can be sure it will be a safe operation," he said.
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